Left-wing longshore union members give up time and money to fight on behalf of social justice causes from which they can expect no material return.

Basque nationalists make vulnerable their freedom and their lives for the sake of seemingly unattainable goals.

Parishioners at churches throughout the United States risk jail to shelter political asylum seekers.

Altruism is common enough, and so are volunteering, political commitment, and unselfish service to others.

Why and how do some organizations produce membership willing to self-sacrifice on behalf of a wide range of political and social justice issues? While much of the literature focuses on the factors affecting individual choice, the “Lenin problem” examines how organizations induce members to take costly personal actions that do not seem to have connection to the reasons people joined the organization initially.

The paper investigates a specific type of organization: labour unions in democratic countries.

It examines both “business unions,” whose sole commitments are to the welfare of members, and “social movement unions,” those committed to the social welfare of members and the larger society.

Almost all unions ask members to contribute personal time and money or approve organizational resources for charitable purposes, electoral campaigns, and lobbying.

Only a very few, however, advocate political and social justice causes that seem unrelated to the achievement of better wages or working conditions.

The paper argues that, in appropriate circumstances, organizational membership changes the beliefs of constituents about the nature of the world and subsequently reveals a preference for actions on behalf of others or for a cause, actions that entail unrequited costs in time, lost income, and possible bodily harm.

This seems to be what is happening within a subset of religious, political, and labour organizations.

Radical history conference: A century of struggle
Laborism & the radical alternative. Lessons for today

Saturday, May 30; 9.30am (registration) – 5.00pm,

AMWU offices, 251 Queensberry St, Carlton

Speakers include:

Verity Burgman, author of many books on labour movement history

Jamie Doughney, economist National Tertiary Education Union state president

Tim Gooden, Geelong Trades Hall secretary

Chris Spindler, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union organiser

Socialist Alliance is organising a one-day conference on the struggle to build a radical alternative to the deadening hand of the ALP and the lessons we can draw for today. The seminar will draw on the experiences of the communist and trade union movements in Australia over the last century. This will be an important seminar given the global economic meltdown, the crisis of climate change and the dampening impact that the federal ALP government has had on the trade union movement.

Topics include:

The formation of the ALP. Was it ever a workers’ party?The record of the ALP. High hopes and big disappointmentsThe Wobblies. Achievements and limitationsThe vehicle of socialism? The NSW Socialisation Units in the 1930s
Communism in Australia. Some of the issuesLeft alternatives in the trade unions
Fighting under Labor governments todayLooking to the future

These are exciting times for the Brisbane Labour History Association. Planning is well underway for the one-day conference, Red, Green and In-between: Reviewing Labour and the Environment in Historical Context, to be held on Saturday 6 February 2010, Griffith University (South Bank campus), Brisbane, Australia.

Equally as exciting is

the Annual General Meeting of BLHA
To be held this Saturday [5 Dec 2009] commencing 3pm
Venue: LHMU, 27 Peel St, South Brisbane
(opposite the QCU building).

Some positions on the committee will fall vacant: an excellent opportunity for new people to step into the decision-making roles of the BLHA.

If you have not renewed your membership, its not too late!

Perhaps now, more than ever, the aims of the BLHA are an important contribution to understanding a changing world
to encourage and promote:

Fair enough if not relevant for your meeting there … though your
speaker may know of this network in context of “social movement
unionism” ?

Here in Melbourne there are many Indians amongst the International
students most of whom are casualised workers.

Amidst them is is a “push” of young unionists eg taxi-drivers
uprising/occupation of city intersection for 24+ hours last year after
the stabbing of a fellow worker.

Some of these worker students also work with UNITE which is trying to get justice for same milieu 7-Eleven workers under-paid at rates as little as $8 an hour…see http://www.unite.org.au/

Back in India itself here is a struggle on between Biz unions and Party affiliated hierarchies, outside them are the majority of wage slaves of course just like here.

The “internationalist” GWN project in their own words:

” Gurgaon Workers’ News is a project independent from political parties or unions, trying to support workers’ self-organisation in their
struggle for a better life. One of the projects aim is to document the
development and workers’ struggles in and around Gurgaon, one of the current boom regions of global capital. For this reason we publish a monthly electronic newsletter on this site.

GWS is not meant to be a purely documenting project, it is not supposed to be a one way street. We distribute a regular newsletter/leaflet amongst workers in the area which, apart from local news, contain workers` information of related industries, companies or boom regions from other places in the world. If you want to have your information distributed to workers of a specific company, see list of companies on this site, or if you would offer to do the same at your place, please get in touch. ”

Intro: Some thoughts on the ‘revolutionary potentials’ in Delhi’s
industrial south Mirafiori used to be FIATs biggest car factory in Italy, employing over 80,000 workers in the 1960s. In 1969 the factory was occupied by the workers, it became a focus for social unrest, a meeting point for young student groups, a reference point for other workers’ struggles at the time. Italy was at the brink of social revolution.

Some smaller groups consisting of workers, CPI dissidents and other activists ‘re-read’ Marx and questioned the official interpretation of the CPI. Their current was denounced as ‘Operaismo’, ‘Workerism’. “

WBT addresses the following questions:
1. Industrial question: The Master/servant relationship. The struggle for Worker Control.
2. Ownership question: Who owns the land or does the land own us? Rights to the city, right to country. The struggle of indigenous people for land rights and social justice in Australia.
3. Political question: This is the class struggle. Who owns the means of production? Who governs? How are democratic rights won and shared.

This is aboriginal land

A note to indigenous people, Workers BushTelegraph may contain recordings, images and songs of people who are deceased.

WBT Archives (2006-)

Contact

Views

543,463 reads

Questions

*Industrial - Master/servant relationship. The power of boss over worker.
*Ownership - The struggle of indigenous people for land rights and social justice in Australia. Rights to country, right to city.
*Political - The class question. Who should govern? Who owns the means of production? Why and how?

Publishing Policy

Workers BushTelegraph is primarily for original articles, original news, stories you can’t read elsewhere, original verse, original pictures, videos and music.

If you wish to have something published please write to the editor.

Authors will be contacted for approval before publication.

Comments are published automatically and are the responsibility of the author. Please keep comments as short as possible (less than 200 words).

Email addresses given by commentators are private and are not distributed without their knowledge and consent.